The waves at Alaia Bay are suited for all skill levels, from beginners to, well, Zeke Lau. He recently jumped on the opportunity to get some waves and experience Switzerland, leaving behind his boardshorts and the tropical waters of Hawaii for a 5-mil and a change of scenery.
Having been locked in everyday like most of the entire planet, working on his weaknesses Kanoa Igarashi is back on his a-game. Drop into a few stand up kegs with the style master.
The new issue is out. You can get it delivered to door for by hitting this link here .
HELLO!
Sorry it has been some time. Lockdown, Brexit and a landslide of photos from all corners of Britain and Ireland have caused some disruption of late. But here we are, kicking off 2021 with a new issue, new features, but the same stoke. I think this was an exceptional winter. Heaven or hell depending on how close to the beach you live or how stringently you kept lockdown travel rules. Personally, I took to the spirit and didn’t travel to some of my favourite waves that I deemed outside of my community. So, hell for me for a while. Although I do take pleasure when the inbox starts pinging with shots of you lot out enjoying yourselves. And ping it did. To the point where it nearly took out our hard drives. So, this issue is filled with all the action and reaction from what could have been one of the best ever. Or worst. See what you think… Also, we catch up with Tom Lowe, who has had an amazing run at Jaws, Mavs and Pipe. So good to see him repping our big wave crew. Alys Barton has been ripping lately, so Mark Vaughan caught up with her to find out what lays ahead. The Isle of Wight has good waves and a solid crew, but this issue we finally get proof. Plus George Watt gives us the rundown on Fraserburgh. And there’s lots more. So dig in. Glad you are here… glad we are all here to be honest! Hope you enjoy.
Steve
Editor
The winner of the Down the Line Surf (@downthelinesurf) and Carve @carvemag #WarriorsOfWinter competition has been announced by Kelly Slater (@kellyslater). Kelly has chosen James Bowden’s (@jamesbowdown) photo of surfer Jack Johns (@jackjohns) in a dark and cold mid-winter session.
The story behind James’ photograph really sets the scene and describes the reality of a harsh Cornish winter and the lengths taken to get the shot. With so many outstanding entries, we knew it would have been a tough choice for Kelly, but for him this photo really captured what winter is about – “With one or two friends and getting crazy barrels”.
After a crazy winter of waves, we are already looking forward to next winter’s comp and more epic entries from around the UK and Ireland. We have our fingers crossed the waves will be just as good and hopefully we will get some decent swell throughout the summer until then.
@downthelinesurf @carvemag @kellyslater @jamesbowdown @jackjohns #DownTheLineSurf #WarriorsOfWinter “
Ezekiel Lau gets invited to test out the world’s newest Wave Garden at Alaia Bay in Sion, Switzerland. In this episode, Zeke shows what a mission it was to get to Switzerland, then finally gets to surf the wave pool for the first time at 16:00 on the edit.
“The foil itself is essentially a guillotine’ an anonymous surfer told the Bournemouth Echo here.
“If it collides with somebody it is not just a surfboard it is a blade with wings, people have been pretty mangled up by these already.”
“If you are hit by one you are going straight to hospital if you are lucky.”
The surfer suggested they could head to quieter areas, or areas like Poole Harbour where windsurfing and kitesurfing already happens regularly.
“The problem is they want to ride waves and they are best around the pier and around Branksome which are areas often populated by surfers and swimmers,” he added.
“They are doing it safely, there are videos of these guys riding them around, between people, they are in control.
“But if someone sees it and thinks it is great fun and wants to do it and don’t have the skill level someone will get hurt.
“We are all there to enjoy the beach but perhaps don’t do it in packed areas.
“The level of surfing in Bournemouth is not very high, adding in the danger with foiling, it is going to end up in a bad way.”
